To facilitate use and support the weight of the heavy steering wheel, we constructed a support frame to mount the electronics box and attach the interactive aspects of our COACH. The electronics box also houses the support mechanisms for the steering and throttle mechanisms.
The steering wheel was mounted on a PVC pipe and supported by two wooden blocks inside the electronics box. An encoder was fixed on a masonite support and a bracket was attached to the shaft of the encoder and the end of the PVC pipe. The two wooden support blocks were used to prevent the encoder taking any load from the steering wheel. Two mechanical stops were used to prevent the user damaging the encoder by accidentally pulling or pushing on the steering wheel. There was no limit to how many rotations the steering wheel could undergo.
